My practice is focused on surrogacy, egg donation, embryo donation and sperm donation because of my 8-year journey to have my own children after having endured more than 10 artificial insemination procedures, three surgeries, three miscarriages, and 13 IVF procedures to finally realize my dream when a surrogate carried my twins. Because of this experience, I am able to guide my clients through the emotional and financial process of having a child using assisted reproductive techniques.

Thursday, February 03, 2011

Belgium Gay Couple's Son in Ukrainian Orphanage

What a sad story for this couple, Laurent and Peter, a gay couple from Belgium who decided to have a child through surrogacy, in part because it is very difficult for a gay couple to adopt a child in their country.

The unfortunate part is they chose Ukraine for their surrogacy and now, 2 1/2 years after their child's birth, the baby languishes in a Ukrainian orphanage. The reason: the child is not a citizen of the Ukraine so that country will not issue legal papers, including a passport and nor is the child a citizen of Belgium because that country, while not having any laws for or against surrogacy, will not issue legal papers.

No matter what you think of the couple, no child should suffer like this.

I received a desperate call last summer from a couple who had a newborn daughter born via surrogacy in India. The husband's country, Spain, was refusing to issue a passport. I was able to connect them to an experienced surrogacy attorney in India and fortunately the mother was American and after 3 months they were finally able to leave that country.